Tag: indie game
(page 1 of 4)

Super Meat Boy Sells Extremely Well on Switch

Super Meat Boy, the challenging platformer that released back in 2010 by developer Team Meat, launched for the Nintendo Switch last week and owners of the console love it. The game is off to a great start in terms of sales. The studio took to Twitter saying that first-day sales came “shockingly close” to repeating the games sales numbers from when it launched on Xbox 360 in 2010.

The sequel to Super Meat Boy, Super Meat Boy Forever, is on its way to the Switch in the future according to a Nintendo Direct from last year, and the strong debut for the game is a good sign for the studio. Team Meat joked, “Now I’m pretty excited about Super Meat Boy Forever for the Switch…Imma buy @notch’s house.”

Now I’m pretty excited about Super Meat Boy Forever for the Switch…Imma buy @notch‘s house

To add some context to the above tweet, Notch is the creator of Minecraft, Markus Persson, who sold Minecraft to Microsoft for around $2.5 billion back in 2014. He used some of that to buy a $70 million mansion in Los Angeles, outbidding Jay-Z and Beyonce.

New Mode!

Super Meat Boy for Switch is available now for $15 on the Switch’s digital store. A physical version will hit store shelves later this year. The Switch edition of the game offers a new mode which is a two-player split-screen challenge named “Race Mode.” You can use this mode for individual levels, an assortment of random ones, or the full game, with options for both light and dark.

The amazing story of what Team Meat had to go through to create Super Meat Boy was one of the best parts of the independent film Indie Game: The Movie. The game was developed by The Binding of Isaac’s creators Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes and debuted on Xbox 360 as part of Microsoft’s Game Feast promotion back in October of 2010. It also came out for PS4, PlayStation Vita, and Wii U.

Gang Beasts – Servers and Gameplay on YouTube

After weeks of trying to stream this ridiculous fighting game, the Gigamax crew gave up and instead put a bunch of gameplay into one video. Anyone that has purchased Gang Beasts knows that the servers aren’t always to most reliable. Random disconnects, long wait times, or the servers not working at all is a common occurrence. Live streaming this simple, silly fighter was next to impossible.

Below is the Gang Beasts playlist on YouTube. Every and any of Gigs and Mack’s Gang Beasts adventures will all be located in there. As the game continues to work through its bugs and fix their unstable servers, be sure to check back for even more Gang Beasts videos. This wacky fighter is nothing but a great time when it actually works.

Gang Beasts with Gigamax Games on YouTube

What’s Gang Beasts All About?

Each map brings a new way to slaughter your ragdoll enemies. From dueling elevators to the speeding trucks, these lovable stumbling sprites find themselves in some extremely dangerous situations. It doesn’t seem to faze them however as they headbutt, punch, and throw their way to victory. The battles can get intense but the laughs never stop. Even with people dying all around you, it just doesn’t matter because if you’re next, it’ll probably just make you laugh.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to stop by. Hope you enjoyed the video and be sure to stick around for more from Gigamax Games! Don’t forget to Like, Comment, and Subscribe to stay up to date. Be sure to let Gigs and Mack what you want to watch them play. Leave a comment and the Gigamax crew will let you know when they’ll make a video of one of your favorite video games!

How Sea of Thieves Progression System Works

Have you ever had dreams of sailing the open oceans with a couple of friends and going on an old school pirate adventure? Sea of Thieves is a new indie game that to lets you do just that. While this game can be played solo the developers are encouraging friends to play co-op. One of the biggest issues surrounding multiplayer experiences is friends who’ve spent a different amount of time with the game oftentimes have trouble playing together. Rare wants to rectify this issue with a progression system that works differently for Sea of Thieves.

Friends That Game Together, Stay Together

The ultimate goal of the game is to become a pirate legend, which can be accomplished by increasing reputation with each of the game’s factions. These trading companies offer quests, better known as voyages, for players to complete and earn a variety of awards. Some of these awards are gold, reputation gains, cosmetics, titles, and ranks.

You won’t earn items that put you on an uneven playing field though. This is to avoid a situation that would make it challenging to play with a friend that hasn’t put in the same amount of hours. Every voyage can be shared with any player so that they can be accomplished with a group. A team of players can also implement a democratic voting system so that everyone has a say in what they do next, this definitely comes in handy when playing with random matchmaking partners. Rare also pointed out that you can complete tasks on your own, but you still appear in a shared world with other players.

Sea of Thieves release date was finally revealed for both Xbox One and the PC. After a considerable amount of delays, the game will finally hit the virtual stores on March 20th, 2018. The game also offers cross-play so friends can share their experiences between the two platforms. Gigamax was recently invited to the game’s technical alpha so be sure to check back for some gameplay in the near future!

DayZ Leaves PC Early Access Next Year

After years of waiting DayZ supporters will finally be able to see the survival game outside of its early access program. The developer of the title, Bohemia, detailed in a recent blog post that 2018 would be the most exciting year for the indie game yet. DayZ is also set to hit consoles next year along with its full release, but the developer has been known for making ambitious statements that don’t always come to fruition.

DayZ Leans on Microsoft

Unfortunately, it seems like the console version of the game will only be making its way to the Xbox One. In the blog post, Bohemia writes “committed to bringing DayZ to Xbox, where we have a large community of gamers patiently (very patiently!) waiting for a truly hardcore online survival game.” (http://bit.ly/2j1mlO5) The post only ever mentions Xbox, despite the game initially being announced for both Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

DayZ had first launched on Steam Early Access in December of 2013. Although this indie hit was unfinished, it still sold over 3 million copies at its reasonable price point of $35. Bohemia took a big hit in 2014 when the creator of DayZ, Dean Hall, left the studio in 2014 to go start his own studio in New Zealand.

DayZ’s Day’s As a Beta Finally Come To An End

DayZ’s PC beta will finally end in 2018, but fans are wary of this news considering this is not the first time the studio made this claim. Even though this time around the game’s lead producer, Eugene Harton, said “We tried to get it done sooner, but it’s going to be 2018 folks. Both the BETA update and any further 0.63 updates, up to 1.0, will happen in 2018, which is shaping up to be one of the most important years for DayZ,” (http://bit.ly/2j1mlO5) Seemingly acknowledging that they messed up and reassuring players it’s going to happen this time around.

The 1.0 version of the game doesn’t mean the end of Bohemia’s support though. Bohemia will be treating the game as a platform for continuous updates that according to Harton and will be supported for “as long as it’s viable.” He also said that the modding community will play a big role in improving and updating the game as time goes on.

It is exciting to see this survival game finally make it out of the early access hole it has been caught in for almost 6 years. Hopefully, this time around players will actually get to see the game hit that golden 1.0 mark that has long eluded DayZ. We’ll be keeping a close eye on DayZ’s transition to full release so be sure to check back for more details as they become available!

Very Early Impressions: The Darwin Project

After spending a long chilly night with The Darwin Project, we’ve determined that the future for this new indie survival experience look bright, but there is obviously much work is left to be done. Scavengers Studio was kind enough to send us an Alpha key for their upcoming Battle Royale style game and the small team of 17 has pulled off quite an impressive feat. They have managed to build an original experience in a genre that seemed doomed to 100 player rounds on massive islands. This was achieved through focusing on the survival and crafting features that are often times ignored in this style of game. Could The Darwin Project be the title that steers the genre in a new direction?

Let’s Take A Closer Look

From the start, this game is a much more contained experience. Seven competitors enter the ring to fight for their lives in a very “Hunger Games” like situation. Much like PUBG and Fortnite, players are dropped into a lobby that allows those participating some time to converse and get a feel for the competition while also given full freedom to hit each other with axes and arrows. After the countdown is up those competing are dropped into a ring that is made up of seven hexagons each representing a zone. Players are spawned in on their own portion of the map (hexagon) and the games begin. Right off the bat players will realize that to survive the harsh frozen climate, they will need a fire. This is where The Darwin Project distinguishes itself from the main players in the genre.

It’s All About Survival

Survival is at the forefront of this experience and if ignored, you can never hope to see the end of a match. As of now, chopping down wood and tearing apart leather sofas is the primary means of collecting resources. These actions result in materials that can be fashioned into a variety of tools that can be used to get ahead of the competition. Craftables include axe/bow upgrades, jackets to prevent freezing to death, speed improvements, and a variety of “tech” that needs the elusive electronic resources. These bizarre future upgrades can be made by collecting a piece of technology that randomly spawns around the map at various times throughout the match. The only catch to this is players are all made aware of the spawn location turning the hunt into a race, for this game-changing resource. Some examples of tools that can be fashioned out of this equipment are turrets, over shields, and teleporters.

Currently, the survival aspect is very fun but needs to be fleshed out more and while the combat can be exciting it feels a little too quick and sporadic for the slow and steady nature of the hunting and gathering you do before engaging an opponent. Luckily survival isn’t all that sets this game apart.

Show Director Mode

The other major way Scavengers Studio is making The Darwin Project its own idea is through the game’s “Show Director Mode.” The eighth player is not a competitor on the battlefield, but instead a robot that can fly around the arena and cause havoc for the fighters. Some examples of their powers include swapping players positions or dropping bombs that disrupt the action from time to time. Overall, it is a nice twist that is still in its early stages but has a lot of potentials to truly set the game apart and maybe create a new sub-genre.

While The Darwin Project may still be very early in development, its Alpha seemed more fleshed out than most Betas that are released today. The graphics style is original and gameplay has plenty of room to become something great. This indie game has tons of potential and we can’t wait to see how the talented team at Scavengers Studio refines their experience, especially when the Battle Royale genre has grown so stagnant. Gameplay footage Gigamax recorded will be available soon so be sure to keep your eye on GigamaxGames.com for more information on The Darwin Project!

Lawbreakers All-Star Update

An update has just released for the Anti-Gravity FPS Hero Based Multiplayer experience, Lawbreakers, and it’s a big one. As of now the update for Cliff Bleszinski’s new game is available on PS4 and PC. The patch adds a ton of new content, most notably Boss Leagues, a new ranked mode that fans have been anticipating since the game launched.

Even though Boss Leagues is now live, it seems like the first season is a bit of a test. Season 0 is what the studio named this “beta season” and plans on gathering feedback so they can improve future seasons. Currently, there are three game modes in Season 0: Blitzball, Uplink, and Occupy, which don’t allow doubling up on roles, much like the ever popular, Overwatch. The studio also made it easier to find players by extending matchmaking parameters.

The new update also includes a brand new map where players can test their skills in Blitzball. It’s known as Gateway and is located above the streets of San Francisco. “Gateway, the Blitzball stadium, is a such a marvel, as it floats effortlessly in the sky thanks to Hadronium’s anti-gravitational properties,” Boss Key says. The studio updated the Redfalls map to contain a Blood Moon that gives the stage an overall creepier vibe, but in terms of gameplay, this new aesthetic does not do much.

Today’s update will add a bunch of new content players can unlock through the loot box system. In total there are more than 120 new items to collect. Lastly, the update adds a much-needed tutorial mode which was a confusing misstep when the game first launched. The full patch notes for the game are below and Gigamax will be keeping a close eye on Lawbreakers developments, so be sure to check back for more information!

LawBreakers PS4 2.0 Patch Notes:

ROLE CHANGES:

HEALTH REGEN (ALL ROLES) –

“We’re increasing the out of combat delay so that hopping from engagement to engagement takes more strategy.”

Increased the time it takes out of combat for health regen to start from 3 → 5 seconds.

ASSASSIN –

“With the health adjustments in Patch 1.4, Assassins aren’t as squishy and don’t need as much help sustaining while in Frenzy. We’ve cut down on the healing per hit to address this.”

Arc Blade’s healing per hit, while Frenzy is active, has been decreased from 70 → 55.

BATTLE MEDIC –

“We’ve added more charges to Firefly so that Battle Medics can command the battlefield a bit better. Having the same amount of ammo on both weapons should help their swap timing and make them more viable in skirmish modes.”

ENFORCER –

“Enforcers health has been brought down since previous patches have increased his survivability.”

Base health reduced from 500 → 475.

GUNSLINGER –

“We’ve added charge multiplier logic to the Omega that increases alongside damage. This should reward high accuracy players and curtail “spam slinger” effectiveness.”

*NEW* Gunslinger’s Omega headshot multiplier will now scale up based upon how long your charge your shots.

Omega’s min headshot multiplier is now 1.1.

Omega’s max charged headshot multiplier is now 1.75.

HARRIER –

“Harrier’s kit inherently makes them extremely survivable, so we’ve knocked 25 points off of their Base Health. The Shoc-Croc has been adjusted to deal more damage if you can train your weapon on an enemy’s head. We’ve also shortened the length of Convergence to make it less oppressive.”

Base health reduced from 450 → 425.

Shoc-Croc’s headshot multiplier increased from 1.5 → 1.75.

Laser Tag cooldown visual now changes from red to blue when able to fire.

Convergence beam duration reduced from 6 → 5 seconds.

JUGGERNAUT –

“Juggernaut needed a bit of help when low on ammo, so Instigator has gotten a reload speed bump. We’re working on some bug fixes to reload issues overall in future patches that will help them out.”

Instigator’s reload speed has been sped up by 10%.

Holo-Deflector can be manually destroyed by pressing the activation button again (Patch 1.4 missing note).

TITAN –

“Titan has gotten some quality of life improvements this patch. They can now perform more actions while in Berserk mode, and we’ve added our version of a much requested range indicator for Hammerhead rockets.”

*NEW* Detonation indicator will now appear when a target is within a rocket’s explosion radius.

Pulverize’s max damage increased from 125 → 175.

Titan can now kick and jump while Berserk is active.

VANGUARD –

“Vanguard’s Meteor Shells + Pulsar burst potential has been dialed in a bit and we’ve made the shell’s self damage less punishing.”

Pulsar’s damage radius lowered from 200 → 175.

Pulsar’s max damage lowered from 120 → 110.

Hydra’s time it takes to get to full fire rate has been increased by 7.5%.

Updated Hydra’s primary reticle.

Meteor Shells self-damage reduced from 100% → 50%.

WRAITH –

“Wraith is getting outdueled and damaged at his intended effective range. We’ve adjusted the reload speed to help them exchange fire and increased the minimum damage from Wasp to match a default kick. Chrono Switch has also seen an adjustment so that hitting targets with it should be more reliable.”

Spektor’s falloff start distance increased from 600 → 750.

Spektor’s reload speed has been sped up by 25%.

Wasp’s minimum stab damage increased from 30 → 75.

Chrono Switch’s slowing rings travel speed has been increased by 30%.

Increased the time between firing Chrono Switch’s slowing rings by 10%.

GENERAL ADDITIONS/IMPROVEMENTS:

*NEW* Multi-region Queue has been added to place players with acceptable latency in matches from all around the country and/or world.

*NEW* First Win of the Day XP Bonus has been added for getting your first win in any mode.

*NEW* Progression UI Widget has been added to the bottom right to show current Account / Boss Leagues progression, as well as a current creds total.

Layoffs Hit The Chinese Room as Studio Plans to Go Dark

Unfortunate news from The Chinese Room has reached media outlets today. According to a blog post from founder Dan Pinchbeck, the studio laid off most of its staff and has plans to go dark. The independent games creator is most famously known for works like Dear Esther, the Amnesia series, and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. Now the company is facing an uncertain future but there is still hope for this small studio.

Pinchbeck detailed in his post that he had suffered from a non-life-threatening health condition back in June, which gave him and his team time to reflect on the condition of the company. This was following the development of their latest game, So Let Us Melt, and negotiation meetings for the next project the team was planning.

The Bottom Line

“To cut a long story short, the situation–between financial pressures, trying to keep the lights on for the employed team, the stress of end-of-development, health issues–just wasn’t a tenable thing anymore. It was time to take a break, recharge, recover, and have a good think about the future,” Pinchbeck said in the blog post.

Ultimately, this led to the decision to lay off the development team. “So we let our team go,” Pinchbeck continues “Layoffs are never pleasant, particularly when you’re all trying to wrap a game. We did our best to try and help the team secure new positions, and then we all–the whole team–threw everything we had at wrapping the game. It didn’t feel fair to anyone, least of all people who had spent a year working on a project, to have its completion and release overshadowed by news about the studio closing, so we’ve held off on the announcement until we felt we were clear of all of that.” (http://bit.ly/2ftvjFo)

Time To Reflect and Recover

The developer also detailed that he was not the end of The Chinese Room, merely a small break to recollect their thoughts and goals. As of now the games currently released will stay on sale as well as merch and the fantastic soundtracks that accompany their projects. Currently, the studio has been downsized to just three people, they are working on a game known as the 13th Interior and will bring on a bigger team when the time is right. As for the future, Pinchbeck said the studio has secured funding for a follow-up game called Little Orpheus and is expected for prototyping by the end of 2017.

Pinchbeck finished the post with “Is it the end of The Chinese Room? No, I don’t think so. But it’s the end of a chapter, and we hope you can all be patient with us whilst we figure out what happens next.” Hopefully, this statement rings true because this studio is one of the most talented and has created some of the most beautiful stories in gaming. It is never easy for a studio to downsize like this but unfortunately that is the nature of the industry. An official media meeting is expected to take place later this week so keep your eyes peeled for more information.

City of Brass – Uppercut Games Playlist

Uppercut Games was generous enough to offer the Gigamax crew a beta key to try out their latest Rogue-Like game, City of Brass. This Indiana Jones meets Bioshock adventure was something special from the very beginning. The environments and simplistic gameplay mixed with sneaky traps and dangerous enemies kept things interesting every step of the way. City of Brass may be simple at heart but the level design is spectacular.

It begins with the character spawning in and it’s all on from there. With no quests or missions, the goal is to make it to the end of the level and advance to the next stage. Each stage is riddled with booby traps, skeleton enemies, and treasures beyond your wildest dreams. The treasure is used to purchase upgrades from the genies located throughout the map. Players have an objective arrow that will guide them to the end of the level, they’re also timed so it’s important to keep moving.

City of Brass Is A Hidden Gem

This hidden gem of a game didn’t get much attention by the media. This is surprising considering it was developed with the help of ex-Bioshock developers. Overall the game came out great and the Gigamax crew is excited to keep on working their way through the unique levels and fight the bosses along the way. There’s no telling what other secrets are hidden throughout the City of Brass. As any fan of Rogue-like games knows, there is always a new, exciting experience to be had.

Be sure to stick around as the Gigamax Crew continues adding to this exciting games playlist. Both Gigs and Mack can’t wait to jump back in and see what else the City of Brass has to offer.

Thank you so much for taking the time to watch and for visiting GigamaxGames.com. It really does mean the world to us. If you can think of any way we can improve the content, please let us know at GigamaxGames@gmail.com. Also, if you have a game you want to watch us play, just reach out and we’ll jump right on it!

Friday the 13th Dev Provides DLC Roadmap

Fans of the very popular Friday the 13th game will be happy to hear that the developer behind the game, Gun Media, has no plans to abandon the project. In fact, to show players that they are still working hard, the team has provided a “DLC Roadmap” in the form of a colorful infographic that seems like it is intentionally drawn like a camp brochure. The indie developer shared this chart on their forums where they also addressed plans for upcoming single-player content.

While the roadmap itself does not share any dates but does show the long-term goals of the developer and a ton of the DLC’s coming to the game. According to the chart, fans can expect new maps, modes, and a lot of new cosmetic options for Jason and the councilors. Other updates include new emotes, Jason types, and councilors. This all comes in the wake of the developer’s teaser video, released in August, that gave vague details of their DLC plans.

The Roadmap:

In the forum post, the developers explained their progress for fixing bugs across the various platforms Friday the 13th is available on. Most importantly they laid out plans for getting content onto the Xbox, a process that has been admittedly too slow. According to the developer, this is because of Microsoft’s strict rules and guidelines for updating games.

That’s Not All!

The team also explained that single player was delayed from its previous summer release because they wanted to focus on fixing the core game first. Now that the stability issues have been addressed, the developers are reassigning resources to make sure that this feature gets added as soon as possible, including hiring additional staff. The Roadmap indicates that single-player mode will seemingly be a number of different challenge modes rather than a conventional campaign.

Hopefully, players will start seeing this content soon as the game was relatively bare bones when it first hit consoles. We are big fans of this game over here at Gigamax and are excited to see more DLC come to this exciting indie game. Make sure to keep checking back with Gigamaxgames.com for more on Friday the 13th’s DLC roadmap as information becomes available.

New Hellblade Patch Fixes Tons of Bugs

It has been a little over a week since Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice was released and the developers are already patching a variety of bugs that have been plaguing players. While the independently developed game was praised as one of the best games to come out this year, it certainly had its issues. That’s why the developer, Ninja Theory, rushed to get this patch out detailed here on their blog.

There were bugs that would break the game or stop character progression entirely and these were the first to be addressed. They also fix a variety of collision issues that would send the player out of the game world and make it impossible to proceed. PC players will also be happy to hear that an issue involving the menu not loading has been patched.

There’s No Stopping Ninja Theory

Ninja Theory doesn’t plan on stopping either. The blog post also detailed that they’re still hard at work looking into bug reports so expect more updates in the near future. One patch, in particular, is the performance issues that PC players with AMD GPUs have experienced.

Below we have a full list of the patch notes that you can also find on Ninja Theory’s blog. While releasing broken games should never be acceptable, it’s hard for a small development team to take care of all the issues right at launch, sometimes it takes time for the community to find the problems and aid in pointing out where they are. Hellblade was an excellent game that should be in every gamers library especially after the patch. Gigamax managed to beat the game while only encountering one game breaking bug. If you’ve had issues make sure you report it to support@hellblade.com.

Patch Notes:

-Fixed a crash that could happen if two Keep Guard enemies are standing close to each other and one dies.
-Russian subtitles for the Hellblade feature have been added.
-Fixed an issue where the audio would be out of sync with the Hellblade feature if it has been paused for an extended period of time.
-Fixed an issue where the Baldr Masks in the Tower Shard level are white on the inside.
-Fixed scenarios resulting in unlit geometry after reloading from checkpoint.
-Fixed a potential progression stopping bug in the Fenrir Cave by the ‘M’ rune door puzzle.
-Fixed potential progression stopping bug in Fenrir Cave due to check pointing after skipping a lit region.
-Fixed potential progression stopping bug in Fenrir Cave if player fails to collect floor rune after combat and subsequently dies.
-Fixed collision issues that could allow players to unintentionally exit the game world.
-Fixed audio cut-out issues.
-Added audio cues for hidden faces.
-Fixed audio hard cut at the end of various cut scenes.
-Fixes for audio lip sync issues.
-Audio balancing fixes.
-Various subtitle localisation fixes across a number of languages.

Warrior Enemy

Protector Enemy

-Health values have been lowered.
-Will now remain vulnerable for longer after his shield guard has been broken.

Keep Guard Enemy

-Fixed a potential crash bug if Keep Guard enemies are standing close together and one of them dies.
-Tweaked rotation rate during certain attack windups.
-Fixed missing sound effects on certain attacks.

Surtr

-Fixed an issue where Surtr was able to throw Senua outside of the arena.

Valravn

-Fixed an issue where Valravn could not be damaged while in Focus for certain combos.
-Parried projectiles will now remove shadow state on hit.

Fenrir

-Health values have been adjusted.
-Fixed issue where certain attack were not dealing damage correctly to Fenrir.

Revenant Enemy

-Adjusted slide properties for certain attacks.
-Adjusted cooldown for parry and evade defensive actions.
-Parried projectiles will now remove shadow state on hit.

Photo Mode

-Fixed an issue where motion blur is applied to object incorrectly during Photo Mode.
-Removed the second slider that did nothing when cycling through the Effects tab.

PC Only fixes

-Fixed an issue where altering master volume would cause no audio to be played during the intro.
-Fixed the lack of vibration with the Steam Controller for the Blindness level
-Fixed an issue where key bindings and run toggle were not being saved between game sessions
-Fixed an issue where looking around with the mouse during the boat intro was not working.
-Fixed an issue where Focus was not able to be assigned to another key.
-Fixed an issue where tabbing out during cut scenes would cause audio to go out of sync.
-Fixed an issue where the menu would not load on start up.